Crone: Gun questions for Sheriff Minor

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It was recently reported that Summit County sheriff John Minor endorsed the recent memo issued by the County Sheriffs of Colorado. I know John and I personally think that we are incredibly lucky to have him representing our community. He is thoughtful, competent, compassionate and dedicated to actually serving and protecting our community. That is why I am baffled by his endorsement. I've read the memo and I have a few questions about it that I would like John to answer. Ordinarily, I would talk to John privately about this, but it is an important public issue on which he has taken a very public stance. Therefore, I've picked a few important quotes from the memo that I would like Sheriff Minor to expand on.>We need to "preserve every constituents right to possess a firearm"Do you truly believe that everyone should be allowed to possess a gun. How about prisoners? As we all know, there tends to be excessive violence within our prison system. Should a violent felon have the right to defend themselves? If they shouldn't have this right, why not?>"gun control does not equate to lower crime rates" I think that you take this out of context. When local gun control laws are passed but neighboring communities don't have those laws, there are problems. However, Japan had eleven gun related homicides last year. England and Wales had 41. The United States had 9,146. My source is the UNODC & Small Arms Survey. Can you explain how these differences are not related to gun control laws?> "gun control laws do not deter criminals"So, what you are saying is that if a law requires enforcement to be effective and if that law fails to deter all people from violating the law, then that law shouldn't exist. Murder laws do not stop all murderers from happening. Child abuse laws do not stop children from being abused. Are you supporting the position that if a law does not, in and of itself, deter all the crime that it addresses, then we should not have that law. This position would save communities billions of dollars a year on law enforcement expenses.> "private sale laws turn law-abiding citizens into criminals"Murder laws turn law-abiding citizens who commit murder into criminals. Child abuse laws turn child abusers into criminals. The fact is that if you break a law, you are not a law-abiding citizen. If you get rid of all laws, everyone is a law-abiding citizen. Should we get rid of all laws because they turn law-abiding citizens into criminals?> In stressful situations "people may not be as accurate" so they need bigger magazines to shoot more (inaccurate) bulletsReally?> you discuss the grieving period for Aurora and NewtownSince Newtown there have been at least 1619 gun deaths in the U.S. How about the grief that those victims families are going through.> You discuss better protecting our schools.How? By adding more guns to the situation. If this works, what happened in Fort Hood? What happened in Columbine where they had two armed guards?John Crone, Dillon